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Doctrinal Confusion

Confusion Related to Christ’s Humanity

How much like you or I was Jesus of Nazareth? The Bible depicts Him as the long-looked-for Messiah or Christ. Scripture presents Him as being without sin, and that His death on a Roman cross paid the penalty for the sins of you and I—of the whole world. He is also depicted as the Example for fallen mankind in how to successfully resist all temptation and sin. But how much He was really human like you and I has divided Christianity for thousands of years.

In general, Christians agree that Christ came to this earth with the true flesh, blood, and bones of the humanity of His day. The characteristics of His physical nature (hardware in computer terms) did not set Him apart from others of the Jewish nation. There are strong differences of understanding, however, as to the mental and spiritual nature (software in computer terms) of the human Jesus. Many believe that His spiritual nature was like that of Adam before sin entered; in other words, no natural tendency or attraction to sin. Others strongly believe that He inherited from His mother Mary the same sinful attributes as all children receive from their fallen-human parents.

Many will initially recoil from the thought of Christ having any internal bent to evil like you, I, and all mankind has. “Would that not have automatically been sin? or inevitably led to sin?” they ask, “and thus disqualified Him from being the perfect Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world?” So, how much like you and I was He? Was He merely AN Example of perfect obedience to the Heavenly Father? Unfallen angels, and the unfallen intelligent beings of the universe are examples of obedience to the Heavenly Father. But, they are not MY example if they do not have a selfish, bent to evil nature to constantly war with and keep surrendered to the Father’s will. Thus, the question remains. Did the human Christ have a bent to evil nature like I inherited from my parents? Was He truly MY Example of full surrender to the Father’s will? The answer to that question determines much about the plan of salvation made available to the fallen race and as to how we must relate to it in order to be benefited by it. To understand the true Christ is to much more clearly understand the true gospel.

Because of the differences in understanding of Christ’s human nature, there are differing versions of Christ, and different gospels, being promoted as to how you and I may be saved. The purpose of this site is to seek from Divinely inspired sources the answers to these and related questions. Let us not downplay the importance of such a study, for the answers determine our understanding of the gospel and affect greatly how readily we will be benefited by it.

The entire Bible is about the Promised Messiah, the Living Messiah, and the Returning Messiah to establish His eternal kingdom. All Scriptural doctrine and truth finds its basis, or foundation, in Christ. The stronger the foundation, the more stable will be the gospel structure built upon it, and the more likely is our faith to hold firm in the time of storm. The clearer we understand the Christ of the Bible, the stronger will we be rooted and grounded in the Bible.

At the end here, is a link to a PDF file that lists some of the logical conclusions regarding the gospel depending upon one’s understanding of Christ’s humanity. The column on the left contains the logical thinking and actions of those believing Christ took man’s nature after sin entered. The column on the right lists logical conclusions consistent with believing that Jesus had a nature like Adam before the fall. You may find that as you read through them, that you favor first one column then the other. This is true of many Christians. Too often our understanding of the gospel has contradictory elements to it. Strong faith will be based on logical conclusions founded upon revealed truth. Let us, each one, seek to have such a faith.

The following list is not exhaustive, and, undoubtably could be worded more clearly and perhaps more accurately. Hopefully, though, it will serve to help us to evaluate what we really understand about the True Christ and His True Gospel—how firm our spiritual foundation really is.